NEWS I was listening to Bill Anderson singing on the Opry last Saturday night when he announced that his fiddle player, Gail Johnson, had collapsed onstage. He said she had been taken backstage and was being attended by paramedics. He later provided an update in his fan club newsletter. She was taken to Vanderbilt University […]
Happy birthday to my sister, Lorraine “Kayo” Paver, known in our family as the “blizzard baby” who came home from the hospital to sleep in a dresser drawer. CONCERT REVIEW – CLINT BLACK A younger-generation version of Dolly Parton opened the sold-out show for Clint Black at the Washington Pavilion on Valentine’s Day in Sioux […]
NEWS Terry Smith, 80, of Nashville, Tennessee, died January 21, 2025. Born in Oklahoma in 1944 and reared in Texas, he earned a bachelor’s degree in education at North Texas State University. In 1972 he moved to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career and teach middle school English. He released thirteen albums of original material […]
BOOK REVIEW – IN-LAW COUNTRY Geoffrey Himes looked back at the history of modern country music to define a movement that took place between 1968 and 1985, beginning in Los Angeles and moving to Nashville. Its musicians wanted to change and update traditional country music through songwriting and performances that resonated with young baby boomers. […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – RONNIE MCDOWELL When Ronnie McDowell called me last week for our phone interview (thanks to Debbie Grisham for setting it up), we began the conversation by talking about our Navy days. We both graduated from high school in 1968. I headed off to college and he enlisted in the Navy to […]
CONCERT REVIEW—DIAMOND RIO Diamond Rio came to Sioux Falls to wrap up its 2024 tour, performing its last show of the year at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance on December 21. Promptly at 7:30, following a loudspeaker announcement that welcomed “Diamond Rio,” six band members came onstage as each of their names appeared on the […]
This week we especially honor the memories of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Marty died December 8, 1982, at age 57. Faron died December 10, 1996, at age 64. Both gone too soon. Both never forgotten. NEWS The Tennessee State Capitol has honored Brenda Lee, 79, by declaring her famous 1958 “Rockin’ Around the Christmas […]
NEWS The Nashville Public Library Foundation has announced a $4.5 million investment from Dolly Parton through her Dollywood Foundation, home of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The contribution will kickstart a new program called Begin Bright, an initiative to ensure reading literacy for kindergarten-age children in Music City, reports the Tennessean. “I really believe this partnership […]
CONCERT REVIEW—LAINEY WILSON The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year played to a sold-out 12,000-seat Denny Sanford Premier Center when she brought her “Country’s Cool Again Tour” to Sioux Falls this past Saturday night. Lainey Wilson, 32, has had a meteoric rise to stardom but is no overnight success. In 2011 she moved to Nashville […]
NEWS The newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame were inducted October 20 in an invitation-only Medallion Ceremony, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater. John Anderson, James Burton, and the late Toby Keith, elected by an anonymous panel of voters chosen by the Country Music Association (CMA), […]